My spring thoughts are this team will go as far as Mark Walton is going to take them.
It's time for him to cement himself as the guy or someone who didn't live up to the expectation.
Walton's got a ton of talent...but if we don't get something that resembles competent QB play, he's going to be receiving a steady diet of 8 and 9 men in the box.
How far this team goes will be directly correlated with how close or how far our QB's approach or exceed "competent" production. Our defense and running game are good enough to basically guarantee us 7 or 8 wins given our relatively ****ty schedule....it's the remaining 3-4 games which will determine the Coastal, our program's trajectory, and the overall success of the season. We're going to need "competent" QB play in those 3-4 games, which is ALL that matters. You can't expect an RB to do it without help from his QB in the games that really matter.
Gonna be hard to stack the box with the WR talent coming in, but that's the dilemma you want to create for the defense. If the DBs play off, then we have the hitch/slant/rpo game; we'll be fine. The offense is not going to look like it did last season with Brad; it's gonna run more smoothly come September.
I think people are overreacting, big-time.
Are we in an ideal situation? No, because we don't have a proven QB, but I have full confidence in Richt's ability to use the run/option game to stack the box to create 1 on 1s on the outside.
We will run to throw the ball this season, and Malik has enough athleticism to be a threat, moxie to lead, and touch to make throws.
And whoever starts game one with be a different QB come game 7,8,9, etc... You have to look at the big picture, depth and all the considerations one has to make regarding attrition and our ultimate goal of winning the coastal.